PRAU wants professional recognition

By Vivian Agaba

MEMBERS of Public Relations Association of Uganda (PRAU) body want it to recognised as a professional body to weed out and protect the profession from masqueraders.

Cynthia Mpanga, Secretary General, PRAU said there are many masqueraders in the Public Relations(PR) profession involved in ethical violations thus tarnishing the profession’s image.

“We want a statutory recognition for our body so that all PR organisations are registered under one body can work together as professionals and chase away quarks,” she said

Adding; “The profession is full of unqualified people because there is no lawful body to deal with such quarks. We want our body to be recognised just like for the lawyers and engineers to promote professionalism and improve our working standards as a PR profession.” 

She made the call at Imperial Royale Hotel during the launch of the upcoming 5th PRAU Excellence Awards. 

Henry Rugamba, the current president of PRAU said the body is in talks with Ministry of Information and National Guidance to have it recognised. 

“We want our body recognised so that it brings all PR professionals together for the general appreciation of all communication professionals and what proper communication is all about,” said Rugamba. 

Uganda's PRAU excellence Awards that recognizes public relations and communications excellence in Uganda will take place on 30th October 2015. 

This year's event will gather public relations practitioners from all over the country and the event will see the awards electronised with online entries and voting. 

Rugamba said that the awards aim at uplifting the standard in the PR industry, recognize and celebrate success, but most importantly, share knowledge. 

"The awards also aim at honouring leadership, service, showcase and uphold professionalism, promoting the good name, image and reputation of PRAU in the country,” said Rugamba.

He explained that the awards are open to PR and communications practitioners, Business enterprise/SMES, Government bodies, PR Agencies, Associations, NGOS, students pursuing PR related courses, In-house PR departments. 

In a press release by PRAU, the minister for Information and National Guidance and the patron of PRAU, Jim Muhwezi said.

“The 5th PRAU Excellence Awards are giving you the unique opportunity to market your products and services to directly 300 and indirectly to eight million East African corporate, humanitarian and government populations. 

This year’s event organised under the theme ‘Optimizing the function of PR in today’s digital era’ has three categories including PR campaign categories, Supplementary categories and Honorary categories. The deadline for submission is 16th October 2015.